Total: From Joy Division to New Order

Total: From Joy Division to New Order is a compilation album of material from the British bands Joy Division and New Order. It was released in the United Kingdom on 6 June 2011 by Rhino Entertainment and is the first album to feature songs from both bands in one album. It features five Joy Division tracks, including "Love Will Tear Us Apart", and 13 New Order tracks, including a previously unreleased track, "Hellbent". A digital deluxe version also includes music videos. A double vinyl edition was released in 2018.
In October 2019, the album was certified Gold by British Phonographic Industry.

Background

The record label were unhappy with calling the record a "Best Of", so after brainstorming with New Order, the title Total was eventually chosen by Bernard Sumner.
The album cover was created by Howard Wakefield who previously served as understudy to Peter Saville. Saville was involved in art direction and told The Guardian: "I realised this was a record that would be sold in supermarkets and advertised on television. So the cover has a 'pile it high, sell it cheap' aesthetic. As you open it out, it says Total, but folded up you just see the 'O's. It says, 'From Joy Division to New Order'. I couldn't bear the words 'Best of'. It's a long way from the independent record shop to Tesco, almost 33 years. At Factory, I had a freedom that was unprecedented in communications design. We lived out an ideal, without business calling the shots. It was a phenomenon."
The A&R for the release was handled by the band, Andrew Robinson and Gary Lancaster of Warner Music. In a bid to offer fans something new compared to previous compilations, the album included four never-before on CD versions of the bands' tracks. These tracks include the original 7″ version of "True Faith" and Shep Pettibone's 7″ remix of "Bizarre Love Triangle," though these were later included on the "corrected" 2016 reissue of Singles. Total also includes a unique 4:23 edit of "The Perfect Kiss" which is very similar to and the same length as the US 7″ single version, but which uses a different four bar section of instrumental music from the album version than the 7″ version has. All tracks were mastered from original source tapes by Frank Arkwright.

Reception

John Meagher, who wrote for the "Day & Night" section of The Irish Independent, wrote that "there's nothing here to attract existing fans of either bands. Instead, all Total does is to reinforce the idea that Joy Division/New Order was a hugely exciting source of music between 1978 and 1990 and New Order has been a pitiful shadow of their once-visionary selves ever since."

Track listing

Tracks 1 to 5 performed by Joy Division.
Tracks 6–18 performed by New Order.
Tracks 1 and 2 performed by Joy Division.
Tracks 3–12 performed by New Order.

Charts

Chart	Peak position
Greek Albums	31